The Featured picture for this deck is a live-action shot of my opponent being so salty that he dissolved into salt. He was also a cat-person.
This deck is my next working project. I love the interactions between Leonin Arbiter
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Path to Exile
and I would really like to see this deck come to fruition. However, it is a LOT more expensive than my current Modern build, jokin-smokin-midnight-token. So I'm putting it on the back burner right now.
This is a green/white mid-range control deck (could maybe be called tempo?). It specializes not at countering spells, but preventing the opponent from casting spells in the first place, or punishing them when they do. Key combinations of cards lead to cheap, definitive exile removal, hurting decks like Living End or Dredge naturally. Land hate is also prominent, with Ghost Quarter
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Leonin Arbiter
being scary early on. Having a Crucible of Worlds out Turn 3 ensures that the opponent will never have more than 3 lands on the field. This cripples decks like Twin or Tron. A small batallion of cheap, efficient beaters will begin to overwhelm the board and bring the victory. The deck may be on the slow side, but the goal of it is to make the other deck slower by any means necessary.
Any suggestions are welcome here! I'm not really an avid control player, so I could use the advice.
Breakdown:
===spoiler:Creatures:Aven Mindcensor: A surprise for any deck search mechanic, and an evasive beater if nothing else.
Birds of Paradise: Any color I need. If I really need it, Birds can grab some Exalted bonuses and swing in for a few.
Leonin Arbiter: The reason why this deck exists. No fetch lands, no Path or Quarter secondary effects. Even if the opponent pays the 2 mana, that's 2 mana they won't be using for another play that turn. Early on, that's huge for me.
Loxodon Smiter: An efficient 4/4 for 3, or for free against certain decks. A high priority target for removal, but doesn't die to Bolt. This puts pressure on the opponent, but takes it off my other utility creatures.
Mirran Crusader: Another scary beater. Dies pretty easily to Bolt, but a nightmare against non-red decks. Give him a Sword of Fire and Ice and watch him work.
Noble Hierarch: Such utility. Ramp early, and Exalted mid to late. The only issue is that it is likely to get removed.
Qasali Pridemage: Another utility card, giving support through Exalted and noncreature permanent removal once it's out. I like to have it in the mainboard, because once my opponent hits the point where he or she can cast spells and I haven't sealed the win yet, I wouldn't be able to fight back very well otherwise.
Scavenging Ooze: Jack-of-all-trades creature. Can gain me life, get huge, attract removal, and hate the graveyard, all for one green.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben: With the land destruction in the deck, Thalia makes it really hard to answer with removal. One drawback is that she affects my spells as well, so dropping a Sword is a little more difficult, but well worth it once it happens. Thankfully, this is a creature-heavy deck, so the negatives are minor.
Wilt-Leaf Liege: A great anthem with a secondary ability similar to Smiter, topping off my curve nicely.===endspoiler===spoiler:Artifacts:Aether Vial: Absolutely necessary here. With my constant use of Ghost Quarter, my land base won't exactly be huge. Vial makes this okay; all the creatures I absolutely NEED to be in play are 2-drops, so just give it 2 charges and I'm off to the races.
Crucible of Worlds: All of the artifacts that aren't Vial are getting a test run. The Crucible of Worlds
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Ghost Quarter
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Leonin Arbiter
combo sounds so nice in theory, but I don't yet know if this will slow me down too much or become too gimmicky for my needs. I could also dig Horizon Canopy back up for some extra card draw.
Sword of Fire and Ice: All of the artifacts that aren't Vial are getting a test run. Fire and Ice will protect a weaker creature against Bolt, and net me some spot removal of my own along with card advantage.===endspoiler===spoiler:Spells:Path to Exile: What's more to say? The best removal spell in Modern, in my colors anyway (before I get flamed by Red-lovers out there). Leonin Arbiter makes it even better.
Collected Company: More bears = more salt. More salt = more fun. Therefore, more bears = more fun. I'm gonna give this spell a shot; it seems good enough on paper, but I'm worried that Thalia will slow it down. But if it works it will drive the price of the deck down a bit, which is good news for me.===endspoiler
===spoiler:What to board out Game 2 (work in progress):-Against Burn: -2 Aven Mindcensor, -4 Leonin Arbiter, +4 Leyline of Sanctity, +2 Kor Firewalker The boarding in is self-explanatory enough. RDW doesn't run a whole lot of deck searching abilities outside of fetchlands. Also considering that Mindcensor and Arbiter are both easily in Bolt range, they get taken out. The Ghost Quarters are now going to be used solely to screw with fixing, destroying Sacred Foundry and other dual lands exclusively. Loxodon Smiter and Mirran Crusader stay put, because they can deal with incoming Goblin Guides and Monastery Swiftspears. Scavenging Ooze can gain us some much-needed life, and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben makes it less efficient to burn us down. Qasali Pridemage stays in for any oddball sideboard cards the opponent throws in, like Ensaring Bridge.-Against Twin: -2 Mirran Crusader, -3 Scavenging Ooze, -1 Wilt-Leaf Liege, -2 Aether Vial, +2 Aura of Silence, +2 Hallowed Moonlight, +1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence, +1 Ghostly Prison, +2
Choke
STOP THE TWIN! Each board-in is designed to slow down the Twin casting (Aura, Ghostly, Choke) until we can get something else out to completely shut it down (Linvala, Moonlight). Crusader doesn't do a whole lot for us here, same with Scooze and Liege. 2 Aether Vial get removed to make room for the new gameplan, as we don't necessarily need to pump out creatures as much as we need to pump out answers to Splinter Twin. Qasali helps for added enchantment hate.-Against Affinity: -2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, -1 Mirran Crusader, +2 Aura of Silence, +1 Ghostly PrisonNot a whole lot of changes happen here. Aura and Prison slow things down nicely, but all we can do is continue to pump out threats to deal with theirs, while hitting their lands hard. Most Affinity decks run very few, if any, basic lands. Ghost Quarter and Path to Exile are big hitters. Aven Mindcensor stays to deal with Signal Pest.More coming soon!
